The Why Behind My Words
My Husband tells me I think in words.
Now you’re wondering, doesn’t everyone? No, I don’t believe that is true.
Some of us do think in words; we find sense and structure in our world via letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. Others may think in pictures and see the world laid out in visual splendor before their eyes, or perhaps in ideas using concepts and theories to explain the circumstances of life. Still others think in music hearing secrets of the universe revealed in melodies and harmonies, or in numbers to explore the world’s mysteries in facts, equations, and balance sheets.
Writers write for so many different reasons and I suspect every writer out there will very likely give a different answer if you ask. Some may give you several. Some may give you different answers on different days. Today I write because a tree inspired me; tomorrow I will write because I need to buy food. Perhaps we write for practical reasons. I once wrote three poems for a school anthology assignment because I couldn’t find precisely the right poems to represent the categories given in the guidelines. You never know what inspires.
Writers often talk about writing because they have to or need to. Some writers say that for them, writing is like breathing – something they have to do or die. I don’t know that I fit into that category; I can go about my life without putting pen to page every day and I do manage to breathe just fine. Although, even on days when I do not write, the words in my heart and head do not stop. They continue to swirl and take form without my permission and while I will capture some to record and save, others are elusive and pass by leaving only the faintest shadow of a memory.
Maybe writing is just something we have always done. I can’t tell you when I started writing, but I can tell you that I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t writing something – songs, stories, poems, essays, papers, and so much more. There are days I love to write, days the words come easily. And there are days I truly hate it, days when the struggle to put down a coherent thought is painful and real. Some days I truly wish my words would just leave me alone.
![20150203_224637[1]](http://www.themeaningofme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150203_2246371.jpg)
I remember learning somewhere that writers write to help make sense of the events that befall them in life. Writers write about what frightens them, about the things they do not or cannot understand. Some write because they have stories to tell or a message to share with the world. Writers write about what moves them, whether to tears, to anger, or to action. Writers write about what they know (how often have we heard that advice?) and about what they wish they could know. I’ll agree with each of those. Pick a topic, a style, a genre, anything – someone wrote it for some reason. I think at some point in my life, I’ve written for each of these these reasons and for many more.
So why do I write?
I write because of all the things I do and have done with my life, writing is the most pure.
I write because I make sense of my world in words. I write because I think in words.
I write because I am a writer.
I write because I am words.
[tweetthis]I write because I am a writer. I write because I am words.[/tweetthis]
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This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post.
This week’s topic is “Sometimes, I wonder about my writing. I keep on and on because…” Or perhaps you’d rather adapt the sentence to “I write because…” or “I wonder why I write…
Our host this week, as always, is the lovely and talented Kristi from Finding Ninee
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I, too, am my words. I define myself by the ones I write and the ones I say and this is a perfect example of that. I’m SO GLAD you got this in before the closing because your words make me feel and that, my friend, is what matters.
I think we have to acknowledge that, you know? What we write and say – it’s who we are. I’m glad I got myself upright enough to get this in because I really wanted to. And I am so delighted to know that my words make you feel. That makes me nine kinds of happy. xo
Great post! I think I got into the same category. I am words too! Around our house, we like to make subjects into verbs and there are some days I just don’t want to word! Other days writing is the easiest thing in the world! Thank you so much for sharing!
Some days I don’t want to word – that’s great, Deirdre! It happens. Thanks for coming by!
I think more in pictures, but just don’t have the talent or skill to put things down as pictures. Somedays I tell my husband that I wish I could be a comic book writer – as in I give the ideas and someone animates my thoughts!
Thank you for sharing why you write, I’m so glad that you do!
Isn’t it frustrating to feel like you can’t get what’s in your head out and into the world? Having someone to translate that would be awesome!
I loved this prompt, Corinne, and I’m glad I made it in! Thanks for reading me.
You’re so right! I think in images more than words. And I’m both a photographer and a writer, so I figured it was bound to be one or the other!
Awesome spin on this great prompt.
Thanks, Tamara. I think your posts do a great job of capturing both words and images, but your photography really is stunning!
“writers write to help make sense of the events that befall them in life” is so true! I write to record and to process, to understand myself and others better! Photography is also a real passion of mine, and it’s interesting that other commenters mention pictures. I think creative types always have images swirling around, be they words or pictures!
You’re probably right, Emily – the creative mind never rests. Definitely interesting how many talk about pictures!
I must write every day. I always have this need to put a pen to paper and if I find that circumstances interfere with my morning ritual of writing, I’m at least writing a to-do list. It’s not as satisfying, but more satisfying that not having written a word at all.
I think some days we have to take whatever we can get, Jennifer!
I think I actually dream sentences or ideas in my sleep. Why do we write? Yup, it’s different for everyone. I learned a lot when my son was in school when we were taught that with his learning differences we all learn differently. So why shouldn’t we write differently too? Great post.
I often remember the words of my dreams more than the images, Cathy. I wonder if that’s weird?
You make a great comparison between different ways of writing and different ways of learning. It’s kind of like cooking, too. There are as many ways to make chicken soup as there are cooks to do it!
I can relate, especially to the part about making sense about life’s events. Great post!
Thank you, Gulara. We all need a way to help figure out how our world works. Writing is just one way to do it!
Oh yes! I love words, I think in words, and I definitely process via writing! I would write all day long if I could. Instead, I write posts in my head when I don’t have time to put proverbial pen to paper.
I was thinking about your comment about post-writing in your head. I have always written in my head. Truth. Since as far back as high school, probably, I would be the kid who looked like they waited until the last minute, but the reality is that my writing happens in my mind, in the background, all the time. When I finally have it figured out, I sit and write and end up with a pretty reasonable draft of what I want to say. So not only do we all write for different reasons, but we all write in different ways!
Ah, this is me too Lisa. So maybe I do think in words more than in images. I am always thinking how to say what I want to say, might want to write something later, in my head first. Then, I am surprised when I sit down to write later and what was in my head is what ends up coming out through my writing.
Maybe you think in words and images, Kerry. I don’t necessarily think there is only one way for each person and the various ways of thinking are not mutually exclusive.
You certainly have the words for this! I think through talking and writing. The words are a jumble until I order them into sentences. Or sentence fragments.
Thanks, Anna. Oh, man, we are a pair destined to meet! I also think through writing and talking. I often talk myself through situations. Drives my husband a little crazy, I think, but it’s how my mind works.
“I write because I make sense of my world in words”… me too! It is my therapy, it is my release, it is my outlet for creativity, it is what I would gladly do 24/7 if it were possible to pay the bills, sleep and still do so! I always think in words and have so many thought spinning in my head that it would surely explode if I didn’t push some of them out onto the screen or paper!! Great post, Lisa – well said!
Josie Two Shoes
from Josie’s Journal
Yeah, writing to make sense of things is way cheaper than therapy, right? 😀 It definitely does provide some creative exercise – doing things like answering prompts and coming up with the six sentence stories has forced me in directions I probably wouldn’t have considered otherwise. Fiction? Me? Who knew?
As for that writing all the time and finding a way to pay the bills and all the rest, well, I’m working on that. I refuse to give up on that.
Your point about some people thinking in words, and others not, is interesting. I think both in words and pictures, sometimes at the same time. In fact I’ve got an example of that in my post on this subject. I think often we’re so focused on the words that it’s easy to miss the pictures, but they contain some powerful messages for us if we do notice them.
And like you, one of my motivations is to make sense of things.
I haven’t quite made it through all of the FTSF posts yet, Yvonne, but that’s next on my list for the evening. Looking forward to yours!
My thoughts are words too. Sometimes so many words. Too many.
Right? Some days there really are just too many. Sometimes I don’t really know what to do with them all and my big fear is that I will somehow lose them.
I never realized it until now, but I think in words, too. Weirdly enough, I type those words as I think them.
I don’t know that I ever thought about it in those terms until my Husband pointed it out. And really he was trying to explain more that he doesn’t think in words that the fact that I do – it was sort of a by-product of the conversation. But it’s very true.
I like how you say you write because you are a writer. The action follows the one acting. I don’t know. Sometimes I still think I am a visual thinker, but certainly I do not think in numbers.
🙂
Yeah, I definitely do not think in numbers. 😀
Yes, to all of this. I think in words – and some days they have to come out, and other times I’m at peace with them staying inside. No matter what the reason, I think we all have so much in common.
The writing is the thing that allows us to make those connections, Lana. We have a common love, yet different ways we relate to it. Thanks for reading!
Love it Lisa. In the about me section of my website I have, “I am my brand. I am the genre that I write. I write me.” It used to be lengthier with one more “I am” sentence (I am a writer) but that was redundant. 😉 I like your “meaning” as well. I too see/think in words. Yesterday when I was writing a post in my head from point A to point be I was driving. So I was remembering keywords I would use to write it. It just so happens that I had the pictures to go with but I wasn’t thinking about the pictures when wrote the post. I love the line about wishing words/writing would leave you alone. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that. I am one that almost breathes with the words so when they disappear I’m like, “Where are you? Come back!”
I love your description and story, Kenya. I remember reading that on your site, too. It’s very true.
I definitely do have days like that, but maybe I shouldn’t wish it too much, lest they DO disappear! 😀 I don’t think so, though. The words are always here.
That’s is true too, the words ARE always there. It’s the mind that gets in the way.
That part is true for me in many ways! 😀
Ah… this is just so good Lisa. Yes- I kept thinking of what I was reading described me as well, and much of it did.
My favorite part that hit me with a resounding truth was this:
“I write because of all the things I do and have done with my life, writing is the most pure.”
Thank you, Chris. I think it describes so many of us, you know? I guess that’s why we find one another in this great big thing called life.
I love that that was your favorite part. 🙂
FINALLY GOT HERE! OMG!
I love that you wrote poems because there were none which fit the parameters of your assignment. That’s very cool. And that you think in words is awesome.
HOORAY for you being able to write again, and willing to share your story and your why with us 🙂
I absolutely did that, and still have the assignment to prove it. 😀 I guess it’s partly the result of procrastinating until the last minute, too. You do what you gotta do. 😉
I feel like I haven’t written forever, you know? I’ve just been SO VERY FATIGUED (I know you get it) that even sitting to write was completely exhausting. I have many things in my head that need to come out, so I’m hoping to be back to it now.
Also? I don’t quite mind when you get here, as long as you do. <3
I think in words too. I have a waterproof pad of paper in my shower, because the words come out faster and stronger when I’m in there. I don’t want to forget them!
Now that’s a brilliant idea, Dana! I often get ideas in the shower and I never thought to get a waterproof pad in there! Thanks for the tip!
For me, I am a numbers person. More of an image and pictures to go with. But since I found my blogging career the words have been filling me up strong. I am learning how to express myself, share myself, grow in all sorts of different ways. I was always shy about writing. I think back and it must have been my English teacher who gave me a C on an essay for one little comma. I always seemed to think others didn’t want to hear what I had to say. So totally wrong. Write away and let others know how to be strong.
It’s terrific that you are finding your writing voice. I think looking back I was probably always shy about sharing my writing, although I’m not sure why. Hope you continue to find your words!
Yup, yup, yup! I make sense of the world in words too. I am married to someone who makes sense of the world through numbers, formulas and calculations. Yikes. I can not even imagine. The thought of even trying stresses me out!
That’s my Hub, too. My eyes just sort of glaze over… 😀